What is chronic prostatitis?

Symptoms of chronic prostatitis are often mild and start slowly over weeks or months. They may include:

• An urge to urinate often. But you may pass only small amounts of urine.
• A burning pain when you urinate.
• Trouble starting the urine stream, urinating in waves rather than in a steady stream, having a urine flow that is weaker than normal, and dribbling after urinating.
• Waking up at night to urinate often.
• A feeling of not completely emptying your bladder.
• Pain in your lower back, in the area between the testicles and anus, in the lower belly or upper thighs, or above the pubic area. Pain may be worse during a bowel movement.
• Some pain during or after ejaculation.
• Pain in the tip of your penis.

Sometimes there are no symptoms.

Treatment for chronic prostatitis usually starts with taking an antibiotic for several weeks. If you start to feel better, you may keep taking the medicine for a longer time. If you don't get better while taking antibiotics, more tests may be done.

You may need to try more than one treatment for chronic prostatitis. There isn't a standard treatment that works well for everyone. Treatments may include:

• Antibiotics. These are tried first. If your symptoms don't improve, treatment with these medicines is usually stopped.
• Alpha-blockers. These may be used if muscle spasms are causing pain or problems with urinating.
• Medicines that slow the growth of the prostate.
• Medicines to reduce inflammation, such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). They may relieve pain.

Other treatments may be tried.

• Physical therapy, exercise, or massage therapy may be helpful.
• Counseling, biofeedback, or relaxation techniques may help reduce stress that is adding to the pain.

Chronic bacterial prostatitis

To treat chronic bacterial prostatitis, antibiotics are given for 6 to 12 weeks. Long-term antibiotic treatment may be needed if the infection comes back.

• Infected prostate stones (prostatic calculi) can make the infection harder to cure. You may need surgery to remove them.
• Surgery may be needed if urinary tract problems, such as narrowing of the bladder neck or urethra, are causing the prostatitis.
• If prostate infections keep happening, surgery may be needed to remove part of the prostate.

Prostatitis is swelling or infection of the prostate. The prostate is a small organ that produces most of the fluid in semen. Chronic prostatitis means that your symptoms come and go over time. It's often painful.

Sometimes chronic prostatitis is caused by bacteria. But often the cause isn't known.